Recent estimates indicate that every year about 20 million babies are born with a low birth weight. This is around 15.5 percent of the total number of annual births - which has been estimated to be 133 million. With such a significant number of newborns exposed to the negative effects of a low birth weight, finding preventative measures is of great importance. The latest research has indicated that if all mothers took multivitamins during pregnancy it may be possible to reduce the incidence of low birth weights by 17 percent.
Dr Prakash Shah and his team from Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, recently reported on these global statistics and the potential of this dietary supplementation following work in which they collated research from 15 separate studies on this topic worldwide. These findings are not conclusive as there are too many varying factors between the studies such as, study duration, differences in the supplements provided, participant groups and the timing; however, they are significant.

Micronutrients Versus Iron-folic Acid Supplementation

Traditionally prenatal dietary concerns have focussed on the importance of iron and folic acid. In fact, the World Health Organization currently...